A Lesson in Sacrificial Love

Image by James Chan from Pixabay

While attending women’s Bible Study at my church on the miner prophet Malachi, I mentioned an experience I had that reminded me of it. In Malachi Ch.1, the temple priests offered sacrifices to God that were defective, lame, and sick, and thought they were doing right.

How it reminded me was that I had two new small devotional books. One of them I loved and really spoke to me almost from every page, and because of that, I reread it several times over again to the same effect. The other devotional was terrible and only spoke to me a couple of times, and very minutely. I wondered why they even called it a devotional; it was so bad!

At the corner park, I had engaged a man who was homeless. He had been there for a couple of years, and many people that frequented the park got to know him and tried to help him in some way. At one point, he was even under a pastor’s counsel for his deep depression and brokenness. He was a nice guy, early thirties, and went by the name D.

One day, he mentioned he was moving out of state, so as a farewell gift, I thought I would give him a few bucks and one of my new devotionals that he could read on the bus. He didn’t have a cell phone to be glued to, so I thought he just might read it on the long ride, and maybe it would speak to his heart and situation.

As I considered which devotional to give him, my first thought was to give him the one that didn’t speak to me, and that I didn’t like (the lame one). Then, I felt impressed on my heart, “Well, if it didn’t speak to you, what makes you think it’s going to speak to him?” Then, I thought, “Yeah, I’ll give him the one that did speak to me, and that I loved,” so, I reluctantly did. Through that experience, God gave me a lesson in sacrificial love. I was like those priests that lacked love in my giving, and thought I was doing right, and liked those priests; I was worldly in my thinking because I didn’t want to part with something I loved. The world is naturally selfish and thoughtless, so, it was no wonder that in Malachi 2, the priests divorced their wives.  

Now, I just practice sacrificial love. For example, my brother’s friend came over and asked for a bottle of water. My first thoughts were, “I’ll just give him the store brand, he’s not my friend, and these Arrow Heads are mine!” I recognized my worldly thinking and said to myself, “No, I’m going to give him the best water in this house, and so I did, and every time after that! One day, he blessed my heart by saying, “I know I must owe you a lot of water, but you have the good water.” It was nice of him to notice that I gave the "good water" and wondered if God’s heart is blessed when we notice He gave His good Son.

Another example, a young woman moving into her new apartment asked for a few dishes/utensils until she could retrieve her stuff.  Again, my first thoughts were, “I’ll just throw into the mix this oversized spoon, slightly, crooked prong fork, a few chipped plates, and this rusty, dull knife.” Again, I recognized the worldliness in my thoughts and said, “No! I’m giving her all good things.” If I had given her defective things, she probably would have taken one look at them, like I’m sure God did with the priest’s defective sacrifice, and said, “Are you sure you can spare it?”

Reflecting back on what it was like being on the receiving end of worldly, thoughtless giving, and how it made me feel unimportant, devalued, and small; it starts with me not to do that to someone else now that I have a better understanding of practicing sacrificial love in daily life. I want my giving to make someone feel important, valued, grateful, elevated; the way God makes me feel by giving His best in His Son for my sins (the pure oblation being the body and blood of Christ at the Lord's Supper/Mass Sacrifice, Mal 1.11).

Every now and then D pops in my mind, and I wonder how he is doing. In some way, I believe my devotional made a difference in his life because there is nothing stronger, more powerful than sacrificial love.

The Bible group got the connection and thanked me for sharing!